Slashdot Mirror

http://www.cnet.com/news/ex-op...

APK

P.S.=> I haven't tried it myself, but if it has all the niceties of "OLD Opera" (such as by site preferences - my personal favorite)? Then, it's going to be great - that's a "tech preview" but from what I've seen, it's already, debug-code & all, up there in performance with the other major browsers-> http://www.networkworld.com/ar...

... apk

Yo Dawg, I heard you like flying drones, so I
http://www.cnet.com/news/hobby...

It's only a 'hobby'. It's not a real product.

Not anymore, according to Tim Cook...

Samsung pushed out Lollipop for the S5 a month after Google released it. You can thank your carrier for the extra 2 month delay.

There is malware in the Apple garden too, it is just that the reality distortion field prevents people from seeing it.

http://www.cnet.com/news/resea...
http://www.zdnet.com/article/d...

Granted, there has not been much of it, but according to the second link, they don't allow security software either (I stopped supporting Apple 3 years ago, so it could have changed though), so if something gets through the app store, or the browser, or however else, there is nothing out there to protect you.

Three owner agrees to buy O2 for £10.25 billion

http://www.cnet.com/uk/news/th...
I am aware that the competition commission bods will want assurances as they did when Three bought out O2's Irish business however........ it seems to me that perhaps Sky is betting on Three ... as when three and O2 merge it'll be the biggest cell phone service provider here.. as i doubt the sky deal will do anything with the 50 billion hole Telefonica finds itself with O2

"Domestic producers 'won't rely on Google' he stressed.""

Makes sense when the main brain behind Google's effort is gone.

That the other autonomous projects, like project Wing has its members leaving or funds being rerouted to other companies, or VPs of the robotic future just disappearing.

Google is obviously demoing these projects as PR to the public and as IP threats to the industry considering it bought a lot of IP recently. Germany's making the right decision--and it will promote competition--which is a good thing.

Actually, Safari is the performance king. http://www.cnet.com/news/safar...

Ideally, movies shot on film and edited at 24fps are encoded and shown in "film mode" at 24fps. Most dedicated DVD players support this, and these days probably most TVs as well. PAL DVDs have more lines, and are still 24fps in film mode, so ideally films are presented in PAL film mode for the highest resolution and most accurate frame rate.

So we should use 48 Hz, rather than 50 or 60 for the TV? Interpolate, or double-expose for the frame-doubling?

I have one of the expensive de-interlacers. Comes "free" in any reasonable receiver. I feed it anything, SD, 720i/1080i, 4k at any frame rate and tell it I want it at 720p 60 Hz, and it comes out looking better than "native" all the way through. Something like http://www.cnet.com/products/o... for under $500. Mine is an Onkyo, but not a current model.

Taking your comment seriously, :-) are you suggesting simulated seems to imply fake, but virtual implies essentially the same? Maybe there is some related change in social consciousness on these topics reflected by "virtual" becoming a more commonly used word?

From Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V...
"Virtuality, the quality of having the attributes of something without sharing its (real or imagined) physical form"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...
"Simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time."

Virtual can also potentially be a subtype of simulation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...

So yes, simulation does seem to imply more fakeness (imitation) than virtuality (which implies the essence is still there).

So, I stand corrected! Thank you, fyngyrz! It's virtual turtles all the way down. :-) Sorry for being insensitive about that!

BTW, I watched this excellent video last night of "Inventing the Future" with Robert Tercek, interviewing Bruce Schneier and Julian Sanchez about pervasive surveillance, drones, and related social changes, and the advertisements were all about Microsoft HoloLens:
"Next Future Terrifying Technology Will Blow Your Mind"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

A decade or more ago I saw a video of similar augmented reality demo (Steve Feinberg walking around Columbia university?),.
http://www.cnet.com/pictures/g...
"Steven Feinberg (left), a professor of computer science at Columbia University, created the first outdoor mobile augmented reality system using a see-through display in 1996."

But Microsoft HoloLens looked so much more impressive and integrated, and I can imagine with better head tracking technology like for Oculus Rift, that it would work better. Slashdot has an article on HoloLens from eight hours ago:
http://tech.slashdot.org/story...

But in the context of this discussion, Microsoft's "HoloLens" show how the line between "physical" and "virtual" can start to become blurred.
http://www.microsoft.com/micro...
"The result is the world's most advanced holographic computing platform, enabled by Windows 10. For the first time ever, Microsoft HoloLens brings high-definition holograms to life in your world, where they integrate with your physical places, spaces, and things. Holograms will improve the way you do things every day, and enable you to do things youâ(TM)ve never done before."

Reminds me a bit of Red Dwarf and Arnold Rimmer. :-)

Perhaps many religions are right, and for our situation at least, an omniscient "god" really does know everything we do? And if every timestep of the virtuality/simulation is recorded somehow, then perhaps nothing is ever lost -- except in a stegnographic sense, or perhaps in the sense of having no more significant runtime devoted directly to its continued processing as an entity as it has lost obvious coherence?

People talk about how any singularity might be more about humans merging with machines then machines taking over, and one can wonder if, the first time, if there was one, virtualizing was more about a merging of physical and simulated/computed/virtualized as with HoloLens than one or the other?

Anyway, just random thoughts. It is in the nature of virtualization that you can never be sure what layers really surrounds you, so we may never know...

One other tangential issue:

In 1997, Microsoft invested $150 million in non-voting shares of Apple. From a CNET article,

Jobs, who took the stage to a standing ovation, said that the Microsoft investment cannot be sold for three years and covers non-voting shares in the company.

If Elon Musk accepts investment money from Google, I suggest he accept it non-voting shares. Mr. Musk wouldn't want Google to push SpaceX to use Google hardware and software, and not use products of Google's competitors. He'd want complete freedom to use whatever products were best for SpaceX.

You might want to update your brand-hate slightly.

Asus: http://www.asus.com/ca-en/Note... Toshiba: http://www.cnet.com/products/k...

Samsung I know nothing about however ...

Samsung: http://www.samsung.com/us/seri...

You might want to update your brand-hate slightly.

Asus: http://www.asus.com/ca-en/Note...
Toshiba: http://www.cnet.com/products/k...

Samsung I know nothing about however ...

Toshiba showed off something like that at CES this year. http://www.cnet.com/news/toshi...

Director says he wants laws to give FBI power to monitor private-sector networks, going beyond existing system that conducts surveillance of .gov networks
...
Mueller seemed to suggest that the bureau should have a broad "omnibus" authority to conduct monitoring and surveillance of private-sector networks as well.
...
The surveillance should include all Internet traffic, Mueller said, "whether it be .mil, .gov, .com--whichever network you're talking about." (See the transcript of the hearing.)

Guess the NSA beat them for funding that project?

Imagine a 12" cube with numbers on every face. Place a stereo (likely dual sensor / dual lens) camera in front of it, collinear with any one of the six axis. Acquire image. Now, tell me what number is on the face of the cube furthest from the camera.

You can't? Of course you can't.

Don't be too quick to jump to assumptions there cowboy.. check out this video and the answer my surprise you :

http://www.cnet.com/uk/news/experimental-software-allows-3d-object-manipulation-in-2d-photos

Joking aside Lollipop went from 0% to 0.1% in two months. iOS 8 went from 0% to 56% in two months (released in September; at 56% in November). As of now, the latest iOS 8 has 68% share, the previous iOS 7 has 29%, and older releases have about 4%.

According to Google, 46% are using two-generations-old Jelly Bean and 15% are using versions at least three generations old.

I think there are more reasons for Android users not upgrading than "they got busy over Christmas".

I've been a Mac user for 20+ years now and an iPhone user since 2007. Quite frankly, the hardware and software has never been better from my own experience. Go do a Google search and you'll quickly find that every new software release Apple has put out is "the worst ever." Same goes for hardware. Every time Apple has had a keynote, there have been torrents of negative reactions about how they're losing their way and going downhill. "No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame." Remember that?

• MobileMe (2008): outages for days at a time, push services not working, and a formal apology. Keep in mind, people were paying for this service.
• iPhone 4 and "antenna-gate"
• Mac OS X 10.2.8, which killed networking entirely for a lot of users and was quickly pulled (this was 10 years before iOS 8.0.1)
• The Snow Leopard bug that wiped all your user data.
• iPhone power adapter prongs breaking off (2008)
• The hockey puck mouse

Those are just a few. The point is, over all Apple's QA is improved dramatically. The problem is that the iPhone is far more popular than anything else Apple has ever made. It's not that the software has gone downhill; it's that there is far more scrutiny on it -- particularly in the media. "It just works" is truer today than it ever has been.

"We say very specifically that VPNs violate the terms of our service, and we believe very much so that anybody who licenses content should get paid for their content," he said. "We hear a lot in every market about this, and what we tend to find too is that, after launch, these issues drop significantly."

-- CNET

The reason it might still be working for many is that they are not using updated software that might be checking IP addresses internally, either innocently for other reasons, or to specifically start enforcing this policy in a limited scope.

It is a very good way to stop anyone talking about what was actually in all the released internal documents though. While the media's been all over this stupid N. Korea angle, where are the reports about the actual scandals in the released documents?

Oh, I don't know.. everywhere, actually. Unless you are implying you know something that we don't, if so you should just say it.

http://www.cnet.com/news/13-revelations-from-the-sony-hack/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/sonys-hacked-e-mails-expose-spats-director-calling-angelina-jolie-a-brat/2014/12/10/a799e8a0-809c-11e4-8882-03cf08410beb_story.html
http://www.theverge.com/2014/12/18/7417891/google-condemns-sony-project-goliath
http://time.com/3625326/sony-hack-files/
etc.

I wasn't the anonymous coward, however:

http://www.cnet.com/news/apple...

The Nook Simple Touch uses zForce Infrared, which is pretty much which this describes. Reviews at the time mentioned it, which links to here to describe it. I have NST too and it works fairly well, most of the time.

The Nook Simple Touch uses zForce Infrared, which is pretty much which this describes. Reviews at the time mentioned it, which links to here to describe it. I have NST too and it works fairly well, most of the time.

It could just have easily been an inside job, done with portable drives, backed by any faction.

Could you explain why this faction in Sony would be hacking South Korean banks?

FBI blames North Korea for Sony hack

North Korea was identified as the culprit based on the type of attacking software used to penetrate Sony Pictures' computer networks. Those malicious programs, known as malware, are among those known to have been used by North Korea in the past, the FBI said.

The malware also included code that pointed to Internet addresses previously used by North Korea. The FBI also said the tools used to attack Sony were similar to those North Korea used against South Korean banks and media outlets.

The problem is GamerGate started with ....

Gamergate started when Eron Gjoni posted a long, rambling post about how his ex-girlfriend was abusive. And it would have ended there too if not for one tiny detail in the huge post which only gamers could spot and see the significance of:

Friggen Nathan Stupid-Red-Pants-Wearing Kotaku-Writing Grayson.

Gjoni's post revealed the truth. One of the foremost proponents of "Gamers == Sexists", writing for one of the largest proponents of "Gamers ==Misogynerds" had -- all the while he was denouncing the gaming community -- felt free to have affairs with indie developers even as he promoted their games. The Game Journalist Emperors had no clothes. Grayson was the journalist who intimidated Blizzard dev Dustin Browder into an apology last year over trumped up charges of sexism, yet this same journalist felt all too at ease having affairs and friendships with young women working in the industry. Hell, his editor at Kotaku, Stephen Totilo, outright stated that there was "no reason to believe any further action need be taken.".

Jesus. There might be mixed opinions on Zoe Quinn, but I pity the actual hard working women trying to make video games in the indie scene. If the FBI aren't investigating the press and indie outlets for gross sexual misconduct now, I guarantee they will be in 20 years time if this is the editorial attitude of the people in charge of these places.

But let's not talk about that. Look, these poor women are being harassed! Bad gamers, bad! Quick, tell them they're "Dead"! Give more terrible games 9/10! Rile 'em up. Call in the mainstream media. Keep souring the bad blood behind all of this to drive up clicks. After 3 months of this, video game retail sales were down 11% in Novemeber, and I know where the blame lies -- sensationalist journalists more willing to attack consumers for profit that care about the industry and community they're supposed to be covering.

If you want to understand why gamers are pissed off, just take a look at the Gamergate Timeline. The journalists who have spent the last two years hazing gamers for being sexists were finally caught with their pants down, and their reaction was to silence, haze, censor, and smear. That the internet was so vulnerable to this is another matter, but the root of the issue is that game journalists have become antagonistic towards gamers and hold all the cards.

Only industry intervention can break this deadlock. Publishers need to step in.

Article from 2009 announcing price cuts to iTunes music, mentions Apple has plans to go DRM free in the future:

http://www.computerworld.com/a...

From same article:

"While iTunes is the most popular digital music store, others have been faster to offer songs without copy protection. Amazon.com started selling DRM-free music in 2007 and swayed all the major labels to sign on in less than a year."

Awfully weird indeed.

Amazon started selling DRM-free music in September 2007

Apple started selling DRM-free music in April 2007 - https://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/04/02Apple-Unveils-Higher-Quality-DRM-Free-Music-on-the-iTunes-Store.html

Ohh, and http://news.cnet.com/2100-1027-998590.html

> April 28, 2003 12:16 PM PDT
Apple unveils music store
...
The songs cost 99 cents each to download, with no subscription fee, and include the most liberal copying rights of any online service to date. Jobs has been an outspoken opponent of so-called digital rights management (DRM) in the past, arguing that limitations on digital music will undermine the market for legitimate content.

Two-thousand-fucking-three.

Here's MORE in that regard (dozens of times, millions of users infected by ads):

http://it.slashdot.org/story/0...
http://www.securityweek.com/lo...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2...
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2...
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/m...
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023...
http://nakedsecurity.sophos.co...
http://www.securityweek.com/ea...
http://www.itworld.com/securit...
http://nakedsecurity.sophos.co...
http://www.zdnet.com/ad-exec-o...
http://search.slashdot.org/sto...

APK

P.S.=>

"And they dont hurt that much..." - by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 16, 2014 @08:00PM (#48613667)

Oh, really? See above, & "tell us another one"... apk

Fucking calm down. I'm sick of people trash talking. I'm talking about the emails between Amy Pascal and Scott Rudin where they trash Obama, and Jolie, the release of private employee health records and info, and payscales. You don't have any right to see their employees medical records and history. I'm looking at http://www.cnet.com/news/13-re... and so far I see nothing of this bribe you're talking about.

Sadly you cant get 4K content yet,

You can't? I thought there were some services providing 4K.

Don't forget it is the NSA who approves what type of encryption are legal for citizens to own.

There is no illegal encryption — not in the US. You can use anything you can get your hands on.

Now, getting your hands on something, the NSA can't break, may be difficult — because they have sabotaged efforts to develop strong crypto. But not because it is illegal.

That said, the existing freely available software — including OpenSSL — can be used properly to defeat would-be spooks. We know this — and the observation is confirmed by occasional stories on how the government leans on companies to reveal the private keys. If they could break the encryption itself, they wouldn't be demanding keys...

http://www.cnet.com/topics/net...

Users are becoming increasingly OS agnostic. They use OSX, Android, iOS, Chrome OS, Windows and (some) true Linux. Enterprise might subscribe, but will consumers? "You mean I have to pay an annual subscription to keep this box working? Sorry, dude but I see that Mint model over there advertising no subscription and machine life updates. Can I do my Internet on that?"

There is one possible exception to my mind: Guaranteed security and stability. If MS says it new Windows will be self contained. That one won't need add ons like subscription AV, anti Malware, or tweakware to keep it running smoothly and safely. And that MS commits to doing all the work to keep its OS in optimal shape, then perhaps, but only perhaps, would an annual fee be acceptable to some. But really they pretty much do that now for free with weekly patches and Security Essentials etc. Moreover, let's remember that Chrome OS does the same hidden maintenance thing for free, too. And better IMHO. Granted Chrome OS is pretty limited, but more and more applications are on tap to work on the platform within Chrome OS and the browser. I also think hardware vendors would see a MS subscription OS as a drug on their market.

The world is moving the other way as the OS is becoming increasingly less prominent. Heck, many people use two or three different OSs and don't even realize it. MS is practically giving 8.1 away to sell its hardware -- as well as that of its partners' -- and to keep market share. Chrome is a giveaway as is Android. I am sure MS would love to get subs for an OS. But it would be a hard sell in today's world of computing appliances. If they couldn't do subs earlier they won't manage now when the rest of the space is in giveaway mode.. And to try would probably hurt their business. What they have to do is make a disruptively cool, kick-ass OS that people have to have to make their new computers do new and wondrous things in the real world (deep learning, AI, robots and smart homes anyone?). They have the resources to do it. Do they still have the vision?

Certain notebook configurations with GPUs and MCPs manufactured with a certain die/packaging material set are failing in the field at higher than normal rates. To date, abnormal failure rates with systems other than certain notebook systems have not been seen

Die is certainly at the chip manufacturing level which is nVidia's responsibility. Packaging depends on the specifics of the chip itself. For SoC chips like ARMs, the client like Samsung or Apple can specify much about the packaging as they can customize this. Other chips like Intel x86/64, there's little that the clients control about the packaging. In nVidia's case most of the time the chip and package are done by nVidia.

> I'd like to know where you're purchasing music in raw audio for download.

http://www.cnet.com/news/top-6-sites-for-buying-flac-music/

How can Facebook get personal information that you don't voluntarily share with it?

Offline data collection:

• Datalogix
• Data brokers
• Outside data sources

Tracking your browsing:

• WSJ article

Getting tentacles in your OS:

• iOS
• More on Apple

Running analytics software and servers for other websites and apps:

• Parse

Etc.

Bill Foster, Congressman from Illinois, can program in assembly language, among others.

http://www.cnet.com/news/the-t...

If you don't like it, you can take it up with the fact that I'm 6'3 and have done roofing, likely can prevent you from removing any of my technology and it would be at your own peril.

"bouncer"

1)The big fat guy standing in front of the doorway of stripclubs. He doesn't want any trouble, but if you hit him, he has every right to pummel you to mush.
They also guard doorways to celebrity parties. The rich guy bouncers are less round and more built, and can easily throw you out of a bulletproof window, but can't overturn cars.

2) A bouncer is the first face you see when entering a bar, pub, or night club. They tend to be large and muscular. their job is to make sure that the bar is safe for the customers and bar staff alike. If you act like an asshole, chances are you will wake up in an ally in a pool of your own blood with serious head trauma.

bouncer

The definitive guide to not being a Glasshole

Really? You "highly doubt" that the same telco's who are practically bending over backwards to track their own users and sell that shit to the NSA would be "stupid" enough for an MITM attack?

What you call "stupid" the NSA calls "making their job a hell of a lot easier." What do you think the purpose was behind AT&T sabotaging TLS encryption for e-mail? A MITM attack. You think you're using an encrypted connection but you're actually sending everything in glorious, easily-mined plain text. Well, not any more...supposedly. As other posters have already put it, AT&T announcing that they're no longer injecting tracking IDs into web traffic just means that they've found a less conspicuous way of doing the same thing. They're just testing the waters. They know that the majority of computer users are pretty much apathetic to the whole NSA scandal, they're trying to see how much they can get away with.

Hell, Verizon started their own tech "news" site where you're not ALLOWED to post anything about the NSA, Edward Snowden, Wikileaks et. al. They're also doing the same form of tracking and they have no plans to stop whatsoever. You think AT&T is going to stand for Verizon having an advantage over them in the customer tracking department? It's worth too much money to them. They don't even need the unique ID's, it's already been demonstrated by researchers that about 81% of TOR users (100% in a "laboratory" setting where there wasn't any other noise or traffic)...just by making clever use of software like Cisco's Netflow. Like I said, it'd make their jobs easier, but clearly from how quickly AT&T dropped their plans, they have a backup plan for spying on you without it. I'm guessing the only reason Verizon hasn't reversed course yet is that they're still trying to figure it out themselves.

Not like they need to, the NSA has their own simple methods too. Methods like buying ads from Google that come with a bonus helping of super-cookie to keep track of TOR users.

http://www.cnet.com/news/googl... seems similar. They claim 99.9% effective utilization through their per-server battery backup system, compared against 95% for a centralize lead-acid UPS based system.

http://hackaday.com/2014/11/11... might also have some nuggets. a lead acid battery is going to be heavily de-rated at the energy rates required. lead-acid will likely not have the same charging efficiencies.

holding the batteries around 70% is no big loss for this use case, given that the alternative is shortening the battery life.

You have obviously never seen my laptop!

Stephen Hawking told us there is no god, not even a particle. :-)

http://www.cnet.com/news/steph...

Wrong. When I buy it I own it. Now if I lease it that would be entirely different. Having said that I will say that in this day and age if I buy anything from a dealer I'm going to go over it with a fine tooth comb. I always assume dealers are out to fuck you because.....they are.

They call it rent to own. They own it until you make the last payment.

But otherwise, there are plenty of good reasons to disable OnStar, as they still listen in even if you don't pay for the service: http://www.consumerkarma.com/2...

http://www.autoblog.com/2011/0...

Presumably they backed off......

http://www.cnet.com/news/onsta...

Um, I do not believe it for a second. If it is there, it will be used, and possibly abused.

This mandatory tracking is the main reason I stopped buying GM Vehicles.

>> If it wasn't for Red Hat, Linux wouldn't exist today.

Thanks for the laugh. I really didn't think anyone could be that clueless.

Your high UID suggest that you weren't around when Linux was young. If it wasn't for Red Hat, Linux wouldn't have made it as a viable commercial alternative to MS, period!
Red Hats technical contributions alone was a huge factor in Linux' success. The fact that RH understood to make money on Open Source software, something most other Linux vendors failed to do or even understand, made it possible to hire lots of software engineers, and pay lawyers to defend Linux from the barrage of constant patent lawsuits Linux faced. Remember the SCO case? And while IBM lawyers played a role in that too, IBM was only involved because RH had made Linux enterprise ready.

Here is an old statistic from 2007 that shows how much of the Linux kernel that is written by RH.
http://www.cnet.com/news/who-w...
The pattern have been like this more or less since the late 1990's.
Same with other core Linux projects like gcc, kernel utils, glibc, etc. Take a look of this incomplete list:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/...

Most other Linux distros are thriving in the slipstream of the development made by Red Hat in all core aspects of Linux as an OS.

Some selected examples of Republican opposition to monopolies; note that both Republicans and Democrats have opposed them at various times, but you asked for Republican examples, so here are some Republican examples:

Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1956
IBM Consent decree
http://news.cnet.com/40-year-o...

Richard Nixon, 1972
Hawaii v. Standard Oil Co. of California
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H...

Richard Nixon, 1973
United States v. Glaxo Group Ltd.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U....

Reagan, 1983
Barry Wright Corp. v. ITT Grinnell Corp.
http://scholar.google.com/scho...

Reagan, 1984
Jefferson Parish Hospital District No. 2 v. Hyde
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J...

George W. Bush, 2001
United States v. Microsoft Corp.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U....

George W. Bush, 2007
Weyerhaeuser Company v. Ross-Simmons Hardwood Lumber Company
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W...

OLED doesn't particularly need a bezel, by design. Here is a 55" TV with a 1mm bezel.

Is it just me or is Orbital Sciences' track record extremely poor? Something like half their rockets fail and they give nothing but excuses. Their Taurus rocket had a 33% failure rate http://www.cnet.com/news/nasa-...

It may be time to look into how they manage their company.

Thank you for your correct spelling of 'their' on the internet. It is refreshing to see correct spelling. Again, I thank you.

Is it just me or is Orbital Sciences' track record extremely poor? Something like half their rockets fail and they give nothing but excuses. Their Taurus rocket had a 33% failure rate http://www.cnet.com/news/nasa-...

It may be time to look into how they manage their company.

Customer: Smiles, says "OK." Produces Phone with finger on sensor. Takes receipt after buzz.

Yeah, about that...

http://www.cnet.com/news/apple...

>These aren't comparable. The OEM does not have to refund what it costs Microsoft to develop Windows. In order to approach comparability, there would have to be a market price for OS X which could be assessed.

That doesn't make much sense. I am not sure what the relevance is. Assuming Dell pays MS $30 per copy, are you implying that the judge ordered Dell to refund $99.99 to the customer who didn't want Windows? If you don't think the court did that, what is the relevance of the existence of the $99.99 copy again?

>Where can any person or organization buy an OEM (or any other) version of OS X?

If, for arguments sake, MS pulls Windows from the retail market completely and only sells to OEMs, Dell needn't refund anything anymore even if they continue to pay MS $30 per copy? Is that your argument?

If you believe the court ordered Dell to refund the $30, can't Apple calculate how much OS X development for Macbooks costs them? Are you implying it's hard to calculate so they needn't refund?

1. Hotel O hires caterers, and passes that cost on to its customers. Some of its customers object, because the food served by the caterers is not in line with either their preference or their moral convictions, and the catering was not the service they were seeking, they simply couldn't opt out. They were actually interested in a safe and comfortable place to sleep for the night near some attraction or appointment.
2. Bed & Breakfast A is a hot spot for its (few) patrons because it serves a particular dish of eggs benedict that they enjoy, and has a spectacular view.

What if some of the patrons in #2 don't like the eggs benedict or the view but just wanted a place to sleep because they think the beds(hardware) are superior? Should they be denied a refund solely because there are fewer of their kind? Your earlier argument as more like if the caterers in #1 sold the same food also in their restaurant, somehow O's customers are eligible for a refund, but A's are not.

http://www.cnet.com/news/macbo...

http://www.junauza.com/2008/04...

https://news.ycombinator.com/i...

There are a lot of people who buy Macs because they believe it's higher quality hardware, and then replace it with Linux or Windows because they need to run some non Mac apps or it's their preferred OS. I don't see anything wrong with some of them expecting not being forced to pay for OS X and bundled software like iWork etc., especially in Italy now that it's the law.

http://www.cnet.com/news/macbo...